Gallery Director Terri Lew spoke with Bern Young on ABC Radio about her search for the high school art student who painted the very first artwork Terri ever bought back in 1987.

This single painting became the beginning of a lifelong passion for collecting art and ultimately launching 19 Karen Art Gallery.

ABC Radio
Listen to: The Missing Artist Interview

ABC Radio
Listen to: Petrina Ryan-Kleid and Terri Lew Interview

ABC News Article
Read: Artist behind the portrait in the Epstein Files reunites with collector who purchased first artwork

A Letter from the Artist
Read: Petrina Ryan Kiled Thank you 

 

How did you start collecting art?

This is the first painting I ever bought 40 years ago…

Approximately 40 years ago I picked up my 2 young kids from school and on the way home I dropped by the Gold Coast City Gallery (now called HOTA) to see high school students annual exhibition called ‘ Energies’.

As I entered the gallery I was immediately drawn to this painting.

It is important to note that at the age of 35 with 2 young children, a mortgage and no savings in the bank to speak of, I could not afford to buy art and especially when my then husband was an artist – a good one I might add!

However, something happened to me that day. Each time I walked away from the painting to leave the gallery, I was drawn back to it. The person in the painting was following me with his eyes, just like the Mona Lisa did when I saw her at the Louvre. I just couldn’t walk away from the painting and after my third attempt, I had to ask a volunteer member of staff if the painting was for sale and if so how much would the artist accept for it…

The young man went to the back of the gallery, made a phone call and came back with the answer. Yes, the artist will sell the painting. She wants $150. I immediately agreed!

When it was time to collect the painting, I asked my then husband if he would help me pick up the painting and bring it home. He said “it was a piece of ****! “ and flatly refused to help me.

Little did he know how much more determined that made me!

At the time I had a roof rack on my Gemini (an Australian car no longer in production) I strapped this big painting to the roof of my car and drove in first gear all the way home on a windy day whilst holding the painting outside the window with one hand and the other hand was steering the wheel. Today, I would be booked for driving this way…

Needless to say that my husband was not happy when I arrived home with the painting – but the painting lasted longer than my marriage and it is proudly hanging in the gallery.

That’s how I started my journey into collecting art…